Day 66: Ranch to Cusco Travel Day

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Olly strikes his cord at 4.21am (cos Rach needed that extra minute) and we stubble out of bed, shove some clothes on for our travel day to Cusco. Our shuttle driver is waiting for us at 4.45am and we head off to the Aeroporto.

It was a good idea staying out in Tababela near the airport cos exactly 8 minutes later we had arrived and were strolling into the departures area. We got ourselves checked and went through to security and then onto find some breakfast. Although the Quito International Airport is brand new, they certainly know how to charge exorbitant prices for things. We settled on getting fruit and yogurt, a bagel and couple of coffees for breakfast and we didn't get much change from our last USD$20. It filled us up though and Rach could sort of start to use her motor skills again.

There was barely anybody on the first leg of our flight to Lima. Still, they shoved everybody near the front of the plane when we took off, however, once airborn we moved up the back so I got a window seat and Rach could spread out. The view out of the window was great, flying directly over the Ecuadorian/Peruvian Andes, their snow-capped peaks sticking out above the cloud line.

A few hours later we landed and had to collect our bags as our 'connecting' flight didn't allow for our stuff to pass all the way through to Cusco. We checked-in again for our next flight and were told the bad news that our 12pm flight to Cusco had been delayed by 2 hours. It was annoying however they gave us a Maccas voucher as compensation! We strolled up to the departure gates and found a Starbucks with free wi-fi so we got our second coffee for the day, jumped online and caught up on our 'administrative' duties. For some reason, I checked our boarding passes for something and noticed that our names weren't listed! It was someone name Rodriguez or something like that!! Rach looked like she was getting pretty comfortable, sipping her chai-latte so I drew the short straw and strolled back down stairs to the Taca check-in desk. I explained to them I was not Mr Rodriguez and they just whipped up to new boarding passes with our correct names and ensured me that our bags would be on the flight to Cusco...hmm, I hope so.

We got our Maccas for lunch and Rach was on the verge of a combination between a tanty and tears when the Maccas girl told her the voucher wouldn't get her a quarter pounder meal (it was only good for a McChicken, Big Mac or nuggets). So she sulked her way through her McNuggets complaining they weren't as good as the ones you get back home. At least it was free.

We finally boarded our late flight (even after making everyone move to a different gate) and 50 minutes later, we were circling Cusco and landing. Our airport shuttle guy was waiting for us when we walked out of the airport, hope he hasn't been waiting too long! The town itself is quite old, with ancient buildings and cobbled streets all the same colours, grey and terracotta. Except the one thing we noticed were the number of rainbow flags flying everywhere; hanging off nearly every building, light pole and balcony. And these flags are the ones you would associate with those flying outside a gay bar. We thought that we'd stumbled into Cusco's mardi-grar weekend however we Googled later on that the rainbow flag is in fact the city flag. Still, makes for a colourful sight from the drab coloured buildings. We were dropped off at EcoPackers Hostel which is a stones throw away from the main square in Cusco's old town. We were shown to our room which was unfortunately Room A...right next to the reception and outdoor communal area. The room itself was fine, however we could tell it was going to be a noisy night.

We took a stroll downtown to get our bearings with Rach commentating every 30 seconds going “oh yeah, I think I remember that” or “think that's where we ate pizza”. Her memory of Cusco from 2 years ago isn't great and from looking at hers and Elle's blogs (which were about 3 sentences long), its not surprising. It was coffee-o'clock so we found a little cafe for our afternoon break. It had been a pretty long day and it was good to relax. The waitress brought out my coffee and no joke, it came in a beer stein! I felt like swinging it from side-to-side and yelling “prost”. We spent our coffee break practising our Spanish on Rach's new translator app that you can use without wi-fi. Once we had mastered “good afternoon” and “I have a boyfriend”, we ventured towards the main square to take some photos. We wondered around town for a bit before heading back to the hostel to get freshened up for dinner. We had trip advisor'd a place called Uchu Peruvian Steakhouse, a 10 min walk across the main square. Well, it should've been a 10 min walk however my usual angelic-like ability to navigate a new city was left wanting, and I may have taken us on the scenic route; ignoring the helpful suggestions coming my way. We eventually sighted the restaurant sign, some 25 minutes later with Hangry-Rach cursing me and bending over in agony. We took our seats and ordered the famous Peruvian stone-cooked Alpaca and Beef Tenderloin skewers. And it was the best meal we have had in our 3 months of travelling! Our meals came out still sizzling (well, still cooking) on the red-hot stone plates and were told to take it off when the meat was cooked to our liking. Rach and I both shared so we got a skewer of each different type of meat. Alpaca is a particularly interesting cut, tasting sort of like pork and beef mixed together. I washed mine down again with an Argentinian Malbec (I'm getting warmed up for our trip to the Mendoza wine-region in a fortnight!). Such an amazing meal that we may end back here after we get back from our tour of Machu Picchu.



We strolled home, full as ticks and tired after our massive travel day. It didn't take us too long to fall asleep (well, as soon as they decided to turn off the music blasting outside of our door at 11pm).

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Photos

punch buggy with roof racks
why not take a photo?